'Glee' Star Lea Michele Fights to Save Chimps

By Jo Piazza Posted May 27th 2011 10:20AM

'Glee' star Lea Michele is a big time animal rights activist. She previously joined former 'Baywatch' babe (and fellow animal lover) Pamela Anderson in the fight to end horse carriage rides in NYC, and her latest battle is trying to convince the National Institute of Health to save 14 chimps being experimented on in a San Antonio Laboratory. One of the chimps, Cammy, was actually removed from a sanctuary and sent back to the lab for further experimentation.

Michele has teamed up with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to implore the government to place the chimps, known as the San Antonio 14, in a primate sanctuary where they can live out their days as chimps were meant to-picking live off each other and learning sign language.

Read Lea's message after the jump.

In a letter to the NIH, Michele writes:

"Cammy, one of the 14 chimpanzees moved to this Texas lab, was taken from her mom the days she was born. She was first traumatically sedated with powerful chemicals when she was 6 months old, according to medical records. Since then, she's been "chemically immobilized" more than 100 times. Cammy and her 13 companions have been infected with hepatitis C and subjected to liver biopsies and many other traumatic procedures.

I'll never understand why the government decided to put Cammy and these 13 other retired chimpanzees back into a lab. Chimpanzee experimentation raises some obvious ethical issues, and there are also clear scientific problems. That's why most countries around the world no longer permit harmful research on chimpanzees."

To read the full letter, head over to Tonic.com >>

Tags: Glee, Lea Michele

Comments

(9)

Friday 27 May

By Lisa

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I guess its only normal to try and save your own.

By Boxxy

They're animals and deserve absolutely NO RIGHTS...I DON'T CARE HOW THEY FEEL, ALL I CARE IS HOW ENTERTAINING OR TASTY THEY ARE...AND GUESS WHAT I AM A MEMBER OR THE REAL "PETA" (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals)

By Caspian

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I am so happy she has endorsed this cause. I have supported a wonderful sanctuary called Primarily Primates for years. These apes deserve to live their lives without being experimented on and tortured.
I hope our government will realize this and stop this horrible practice. Support Primarily Primates!

By jim

Get a Life..

By Ed

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Skank and I don't mean Lea either

By Ben

Great job, Lea! Chimpanzees are amazingly intelligent, highly social beings--they should not be used in painful, invasive experiments, which haven't been effective at finding cures for human diseases. An incredible amount of money was wasted trying to find a cure for HIV/AIDS in chimpanzees before scientists realized it wasn't working. That's why the United States is the last developed country in the world still using chimpanzees in invasive research. It's especially horrible that these 14 chimps were pulled out of retirement and put back into laboratory cages. They've suffered enough!

By tcm

I already loved Lea and love her even more now! It's great when celebs use their voices to help individuals who don't have a voice. These chimpanzees should be treated with respect and moved to a sanctuary. Thanks, Lea!

By zorro1954

Thumbs up for Lea. I'm totally against any type of animal experimentation. As a matter of fact, I think they should take all those experimenters (the so called scientists) and use them for those disgusting experiments !!!!

Wednesday 01 June

By Vickivancouver

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Why would a serious and generous plea to save animals be interrupted by a "glamorous underwear shoot"?

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